A NEW AUSTRALIAN CAPRELLID. 



By the Rev. THOMAS R. R. STEBBING, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.Z.S. 



(Communicated by Allan R. McCulloch.) 



Fam. CAPRELLIDAE. 



Gen. PARAPROTO, Mayer. 



1903, Paraproto, Mayer, Siboga-Expeditie, vol. 34, pp. 12, 24. 



From Slabber's Phtisica. for which Mayer uses the later name Proto, the present genus is 

 distinguished by having only the third and fourth segments of the pcracon furnished with 

 branehial vesicles, the third peraeopod with the normal number of joints, and only two pairs of 

 pleopods. It was instituted to receive the two Australian species described by Professor lias- 

 well in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of Xcw South Wales, vol. 9, pt. -|. pp. <>>?>■ 9 '*. 

 under the names Proto condyloid, and Proto spinosa, the date of publication being 1885. They 

 were noticed under the original names by Mayer in 1890, and again in 1903 with additional 

 figures and comments under the new generic title. The two species are distinguished one from 

 the other and from the species about to be described by well marked characters. But at the 

 same time the new species rather curiously combines some of the features by which the other two 

 are kept apart. 



PARAPROTO GABRIEL], 11. sp. 



(Plate 111.) 



The head is smooth, the only segment of the peraeon with a conspicuous spine-like dorsal 

 process is the second, the three following segments being slightly raised in the middle of the 

 back. The second has a spine also on each side above the insertion of the gnathopods. The 

 eye is small. The first antennae have the first joint two-fifths the length of the second, the 

 much more slender third joint is three-fourths as long as the second, and the flagellum of some 

 thirty joints nearly equals the first and second joints of the peduncle combined. The second 

 antennae are slender, not much shorter than the peduncle of the first, the last joint of the ped- 

 uncle two-thirds the length of the long penultimate joint, the flagellum of sixteen or seventeen 

 joints being rather longer than both combined. 



The mouth-organs, as will be seen by the illustrations, are very like those of Phtisica, in ac- 

 cord with Mayer's definition of the genus. 



The first gnathopod is of the ordinary type; the second in general appearance resembles 

 that of the adult male in Haswell's smooth-bodied P. condylatus, with the large hand distally 

 produced beyond the insertion of the finger, but whereas in Haswell's species the fifth joint or 

 carpus is as usual very small, here it has the rare character of being elongate, being more than 

 half the length of the long and much broader hand. The commencement of the palm is marked 

 by an outstanding tooth followed by a rounded tubercle and accompanied by spinules, many 

 more or less minute pairs of which attend the very sinuous margin to the hinge of the finger. 



The first and second peraeopods are alike, having the fourth joint two-thirds the length of 

 the long second, and about as long as the three following joints combined; the sixth joint has 

 on the inner margin three outstanding spines proximally, more conspicuous than those which 

 follow. These limbs are much shorter than the second gnathopods, not of the same length as 

 in the two species described by Haswell. The branchial vesicles are long and slender, slightly 

 but conspicuously twisted, thus making an interesting approach, by convergence, to the spirally 

 contorted branchiae in Cyamus scammoni, Dall. Though this twisting is not described for the 

 branchiae of the earlier species of Paraproto, it is indicated in Haswell's figure of P. spinosus. 

 On the other hand in his P. condylatus these branchiae are shown by Mayer's figure to be per- 

 fectly simple. The third peraeopods, though normal in the number of joints, are very short, 



